Gozo · North Gozo
Ramla Bay
Ir-Ramla l-Ħamra
The red-sand bay on Gozo's north coast — the largest beach in the islands and, from seaward, the most recognisable.
Ramla is the big one: a wide bay of orange-red sand on the north coast of Gozo, backed by dunes and terraced fields with no development on the beach itself. The colour is genuine and it is the thing people remember.
From a boat it is a calm-weather anchorage and a swim stop rather than somewhere to sit out weather. The bay faces north and there is no shelter in it — in anything from that quarter it is untenable, and the sensible plan is to be on the south coast instead.
Above the bay to the east is Tal-Mixta cave, a shallow opening in the hillside that frames the whole bay. It is a short walk up from the beach and it is where the photograph everybody has seen was taken.
Getting it right
- Getting there
- Road access with parking, and a bus. It is not a secret.
- When
- Settled weather only. It is a summer bay in a northerly-exposed coast.
- How busy
- Busy on the beach in season; the anchorage much less so.
- Shape of the day
- A Gozo circumnavigation stop more often than a target in itself.
Where it is
- Departure marina
- Destination
Sailing here
Boats we list that are berthed within reach of Ramla Bay:
Also on Gozo
- Mġarr ix-XiniA narrow creek at the foot of a steep valley on Gozo's south coast — sheltered, deep, and the best swimming water in the islands.
- San Blas BayRamla's smaller neighbour — the same red sand, a punishing walk down, and almost nobody on it.
- DwejraThe Inland Sea, the Blue Hole and Fungus Rock, on Gozo's west coast — spectacular, and only approachable when it is genuinely calm.
- Xlendi BayA narrow inlet on Gozo's south-west coast with a village at the head of it — restaurants on the water and a wall of cliff on either side.